Dayton's departments outline dire ways they would cope with GOP cuts

Gov. Mark Dayton asked his commissioners to imagine how they would cope with the types of budget cuts Republican lawmakers envision.

As might be expected, the scenarios they paint are dire -- mass layoffs, ending core services, releasing prisoners, killing off job training programs, less help for families at risk of homelessness, fewer incentives for Guard recruits, drastic cutbacks in state park services or closure of state parks and the elimination of a bullet proof reimbursement program for police.

A Duluth native who just barely lost Virginia's GOP gubernatorial primary said that politicians have not gone far enough in condemning the left for violence during a rally of white nationalists in Charlottesville. "I think that the left is going to try to use this as an excuse to crack down on conservative free speech," said Corey Stewart. "I think they're going to try to use this as an excuse to remove more historical monuments."